This invention relates to a device to render protection to a newborn infant against being injured due to an accident in which the infant is dropped onto the floor or other solid object at or following the moment of birth in a delivery room or in a birthing room. A significant added feature is that the waste body fluids incident to the birthing process are collected in a disposal receptacle that comprises a part of the invention.
An injury of the type at which this invention is directed may be seen as one of disastrous proportions, not only to the infant who sustains the physical injury, but as both an emotional and a financial disaster to the parents, who may seek and obtain by way of a lawsuit, recompense of tremendous proportions for the same from the attending physician or other practitioner and from the obstetrical institution involved.
It is common practice in the delivery of babies in a hospital's delivery room that the expectant mother is on a delivery table in a lithotomy position on her back with her legs elevated and separated in support devices commonly called stirrups. A significant feature of delivery tables in common use is that the horizontal portion of the table that would support the patient's legs from the buttocks downward is collapsed, rolled away, or otherwise removed to provide the attending physician or other practitioner full and convenient access to the birth canal to perform his functions.
Recent years have seen the increased use of a so-called "birthing bed", "birthing chair", or "birthing stool", in which the expectant mother is seated in a semi-reclining position with her legs flexed and separated. Thus the same problem can be seen to exist in such a birthing bed, chair, or stool as exists on a delivery table. In this patent, the term "birthing bed" shall encompass "birthing bed", "birthing chair", "birthing stool", and the like.
The physical arrangements described above present a potential hazard to the newborn in that the newborn, being coated with amniotic fluid, with vernix caseosa (a natural greasy protective skin coating), occasionally with meconium (infant feces), and with other lubricants that may have been artificially applied to the birth canal by the attending physician or other practitioner, is extremely slippery and difficult to hold, especially if it is squirming, and it is at this crucial moment that the infant stands the greatest chance of being dropped, there being no support below the infant but the hands of the attending physician or other practitioner.
A similar hazard exists in instances wherein the attention of the attending physician or other practitioner (hereinafter, the term "attendant" will encompass "attending physician" and "attending practitioner") is momentarily distracted at a crucial phase of the delivery when an expectant mother suddenly and without notice exerts a forceful push. Such distractions often occur after delivery of the infant's head and prior to delivery of the shoulders, at which time the attendant reaches for a bulb syringe from the instrument table so that he may suction the infant's mouth and nose. It is very often at this moment that the mother experiences an uncontrollable urge to push. Thus, the baby may deliver precipitously with the attendant in an unsuitable position to receive it and so the infant may fall to the floor and be injured, often severely so.
Another dangerous situation that is all too common is one in which the umbilical cord is found to be wrapped tightly one or more times around the infant's neck or shoulders. This situation is first evidenced following delivery of the head and before delivery of the shoulders and again is subject to unusually forceful uncontrollable maternal pushing that may occur while the attendant is occupied with attempts to quickly clamp, cut, and unravel the tightly-wound umbilical cord so the delivery may proceed in an uncomplicated fashion. Here again, the attendant's attention is divided between controlling the delivery and his efforts to reach for clamps and scissors from the instrument table.
Other precarious situations include: delivery of infants in breech position, especially while employing the use of forceps to deliver the aftercoming head; the use of forceps in general; encountering difficulty in carrying out the episiotomy while controlling delivery of the head during episodes of excessive maternal pushing; multiple births; unpredictable situations, such as very uncooperative mothers; and the exceptionally slippery infant who slips through the hands of an attendant who may have been without sleep for many hours, which lack of sleep is a common occurance in the practice of obstetrics.
The hazard of an infant being dropped is mostly present during "natural" deliveries, which by their very nature encourage the mother to push throughout the delivery; this pushing, hoewever, is not always well controlled and therefore problems such as those previously outlined may indeed arise.
A corrollary to "natural" deliveries is the one in which the father participates or actually does the delivery under the attendant's supervision. This scenario, along with the advent of birthing rooms, birthing beds, etc., has become quite popular and, in the process, has invited more opportunity for problems to occur at the time of delivery. In these instances, the mere presence of a safety net will relieve much of the anxiety of the attendant and the father, and, in effect, will reduce the liability the attendant encounters when he allows the father to participate in the delivery process.
Lastly to be considered are the time-honored training programs wherein medical students, interns, obstetrical residents, and midwife trainees learn the art of obstetrics. The inherent danger of dropping babies at delivery may be most acute in institutions that conduct such training. Again, the presence of a safety net will not only relieve the anxiety of the trainee and that of the resident physician doing the training, but it will also instill in the trainee an increased sense of confidence. The training institutions and all other institutions that offer obstetrical services will, by having and using the safety net, be substantially relieved of a most serious and indefensible liability.
Whatever the cause may be, a significant portion of the onus for any injury to the fallen newborn is laid upon the attending physician or other practitioner, who is already faced with burdensome and excessive premiums for insurance against malpractice claims, which premiums in 1985 were already at crisis proportions.
It is therefore the object of this invention to provide a net that is capable of being placed in a position to provide protection by catching the newborn infant, should the infant fall, without interfering with the normal functions of the attending physician or other practitioner.
It is another object of this invention to provide a net that, although it is fully capable of catching the falling infant as described, nonetheless has openings sufficient to allow relatively free passage of the fluid and some of the solid debris incidental to the birth process, such as the amniotic fluid and bits of placental tissue, feces, and blood clots, all of which are hygienically collected in a disposable flexible bag. The soiled safety net is, at the completion of the delivery, collected and enlcosed in the volume of the disposable bag, which is then closed for disposal thereof, thus preventing the body fluids and other products of conception from spilling onto the floor and becoming a potential route for the spread of disease, especially the spread of the HIV virus which is believed to be the contageous etiologic agent for AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) and which is spread via the transfer of body fluids.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a sterile and disposable net for use as above, or a sterile flexible covering for the net which can act as a replacement for the sterile "butt sheet" in current use.
It is another object of this invention to provide a supporting framework for the net described above.